A small, unknown company before Tsera LLC filed a lawsuit against Apple, Microsoft and other companies producing various portable gadgets. accusation is that the company had violated a patent for the use of the technique of pointing device - touchpad.
Among the defendants were not only manufacturers of iPod (Apple) and Zune (Microsoft), but other companies such as American Division Korean firms Cowon, iRiver and LG, the European company Bang & Olufsen, Philips and TrekStor, and even a Chinese manufacturer clone iPhone - Meizu.
According to the representatives of the prosecutor - Tsera - each of the 20 respondent companies had violated one way or another patent from 2003 principle of the touchpad - the movement of fingers on the surface of the device without the need to look at the player to understand what action performed.
As usually happens in such cases, the patent itself is very vaguely worded. And in your iPod and Zune, which highlighted the work trackpads «click pad» is based only on the scrolling back and forth and left and right (in the Zune), and not on complicated manipulations.
Tsera company hopes to get the most profit is from Apple, and therefore its representatives claim that Apple executives have been informed with respect to a patent in September 2004, but the company continued to produce its iPod classic and iPod nano, without paying for a license to use patent. In order Tsera in case of winning in court to make all the defendants to pay her compensation for the right to use the patent. At the moment, none of the accused firms has not commented on the claim that, by the way, requires a formal trial by jury.
Our opinion: another case in which the patent trolls prevent real progress.